Where to start? We’ve already seen a lot of Spain, with
visits to Barcelona, Seville, Madrid, as well as day trips to Cadiz and
Valencia. Overall our timing has been great – we were in Barcelona for San Juan
(St. Jean Baptiste, which is celebrated with similar enthusiasm to New Year’s
Eve in Montreal), and Madrid when Spain won the Euro (imagine being in Montreal
while the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup).
The first thing that we noticed in Spain is how many young
people there are – not only tourists, but also locals – which was very
refreshing. It seems that everyone is drinking and celebrating one thing or
another all the time (except during their cherished siesta time, of course),
every day of the week. Some joke that it’s because 50% of young adults are
unemployed, but we won’t comment!
We started off with 5 days in Barcelona, which we thoroughly
enjoyed. So much to see! Our highlights
were the architecture (notably Gaudi’s mind-boggling Sagrada Familia, the Güell
Park and the Pedrera apartment), as well as the La Boqueria food market, and
strolling through all the different neighborhoods to find the best tapas. Sanj (our
friend from McGill who now lives in Madrid) also visited for a day and took us
to some of the secret spots he discovered while living there, such as la Champagneria,
where you get 3 delicious greasy sausage sandwiches and a bottle of cava
(sparkling wine) for about 11 euros. We also went for a walk near the beach for
San Juan, where about 75,000 drunken Spaniards and tourists make bonfires and
shoot fireworks at each other. Given the questionable combination of these 3
elements, we decided to stick to the sidelines and then go to a house party
with some of Sanj’s friends, where we got a good dose of Barcelona culture and
tested out a few local beverages.
After Barcelona we went to Seville, a delightful little town
in the south that has great food (and by ‘great’ we mean amazing!) and a nice
local Spanish cultural vibe. Unfortunately, it was 42 degrees the entire time
that we were there (without the humidex, and it was humid!). Stepping outside
during the afternoon was like opening the oven door in your kitchen, so it was virtually
impossible to do anything between 1 and 7pm. Nonetheless, we still managed to
visit the Alcazar (an impressive royal palace), the Cathedral (purportedly one
of the grandest gothic cathedrals in Europe), and also rented a car for a road trip
down the coast to Cadiz (which we found somewhat disappointing, only to find
out that we never actually made it to the renowned old town – oops!) as well as
a fantastic little hippy beach town called Los Canos de Meca. Gen would never
let us forget to mention the scrumptious food at virtually every restaurant we
ate at in Seville; our favorite was Vineria San Telmo where we had banoffee
(banana toffee) pie that even Ace will remember for years to come.
According to Sanj, “Barcelona is a great place to visit,
while Madrid is a great place to live”. We’re not certain that all the tourists
and higher cost of living in Barcelona are enough to turn us off from thinking
we could live there, but after spending 5 days in Madrid living with Sanj and
Ester like locals, we certainly agree that it would be a great city to call
home. This was probably the first time since we left that we managed to take
our tourist hats off, and simply enjoy life in Madrid: home-made Spanish omelets,
a run in the park or a walk with their dog Lucy during the day, a siesta, a
swim in the pool, a tapas crawl, and a couple traditional Spanish beverages (we
even became experts at poring the local cider!). The city really has a great
feel to it – the nightlife reminded us of the plateau in Montreal when they close
down the streets for pedestrians – although it seemed to be like this any given
weekday in Madrid.
Of course, the highlight of our stay in the capital was
watching Spain win the Euro Cup, which was an experience of a lifetime. Finding
a place to watch it outside on a big screen took some perseverance, as the
Spaniards seem to cancel these events without notice. Ultimately, we ended up
finding a square where a gay comedy act was being held (it was gay pride week),
and they called off the rest of the act, laid down an Internet cable from the
closest bar, and showed the soccer match instead. While it might not sound like
the optimal solution, things turned out perfectly as a couple hundred people
gathered to watch Spain dominate the Italians (4-0) (sorry Marianna) and the
entire city exploded in celebration. To no one’s surprise, tens of thousands of
victorious Spaniards plus an entrepreneurial (illegal) beer vendor every 20
feet equals quite the party! Unlike Montreal, we didn’t even have to worry
about riots… ;)
From Madrid we also went on a day trip to Valencia, where we
visited the beautiful Arts and Sciences center, saw a dolphin show at the
aquarium, hung out on the beach and tested the world-renowned paella. All of
this together made for quite a memorable couple weeks!
To finish on a more cultural note: while the entire country
appeared to be united for the Euro celebration, we discovered that Spain has a
very strong separatist movement. The Catalonians (whom have their own dialect
and cover 4 of Spain’s provinces) are pushing hard for sovereignty. This is a
very touchy subject for many – as an example, a friend’s parents who live in
Catalonia had their neighbors knock on the door to complain because their
guests had the Spanish flag hanging from their car the day after Spain won the
Euro!
That’s all for now…next (and hopefully very shortly)… Pamplona,
Rioja and Gen’s birthday in San Sebastian!